In many applications it is required to shield electronic components from the surrounding environment. Thus, in the fields of e.g. radio transmitters, radio receivers, computers and other electronic devices, it is highly desirable to provide an electromagnetic shield around components emitting and/or sensitive to absorbing electromagnetic radiation.
In order to provide the electromagnetic shield it is common to arrange a rectangular shaped device of a metallic material over the electronic components.
Such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,175,395, which describes an electromagnetic shielding device formed by walls of an electrical conductive material. On top of the walls a cover of an electrically conducting material is provided.
However, electronic components have become smaller and smaller thereby allowing the circuit boards on which they are mounted to be smaller as well. Conventional shielding devices typically have a top of approximately a few tenth of a millimeter. In today's technique this represents quite a large part of the height available on the circuit board for many applications.
Also, there is often a requirement that the top should be possible to lift off in order to perform service or replacement of different circuits mounted on the printed circuit board. Conventional shielding devices having a top which can be lift off are expensive.
Thus, there is a need for a small shielding device, which adds as little as possible to the height of the printed circuit board, and having a top which can be removed for service purposes and the like.